<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/j_arend07_343561.jpg" alt="j_arend07_343561" align="left"borders="0"/>
Jeff Arend was part of the final pair in today's Funny Car session, and although he smoked the tires and a number of teams made very stout runs, no one was able to better his 4.781 from Thursday, and the local resident finished the day still in the No. 1 spot.
"My mother came down here, from Toronto, and it's the first time she's seen me race since I was 16, so this is pretty cool," Arend said. "She watches on TV when she can, but there's nothing like actually being here, and the whole thing has kind of blown her away. Today, we might have been just a hair too aggressive, but not by much, and the truth was we have two runs tomorrow to work on running 4.85, if that's all the track will take, so we wanted to push this run a little to see where the boundary is. From what the forecast shows, Sunday will be a lot like tomorrow, so tomorrow we'll work on fine tuning the race-day set ups.
"It's also pretty cool to be sitting on top, so far, as a guy who lives just around the corner in San Dimas, and who is racing in his last event for Checker, Schuck's, Kragen. All of the CSK guys who are here are really supportive, and I know there's lots of people at the company who wish both cars were going forward but it's a business decision and that's out of our hands. They're here pulling for us to go out with a bang, and that's what we're trying to do."
DESPITE TIRE SMOKE, AREND STILL No. 1
Jeff Arend was part of the final pair in today's Funny Car session, and although he smoked the tires and a number of teams made very stout runs, no one was able to better his 4.781 from Thursday, and the local resident finished the day still in the No. 1 spot.
"My mother came down here, from Toronto, and it's the first time she's seen me race since I was 16, so this is pretty cool," Arend said. "She watches on TV when she can, but there's nothing like actually being here, and the whole thing has kind of blown her away. Today, we might have been just a hair too aggressive, but not by much, and the truth was we have two runs tomorrow to work on running 4.85, if that's all the track will take, so we wanted to push this run a little to see where the boundary is. From what the forecast shows, Sunday will be a lot like tomorrow, so tomorrow we'll work on fine tuning the race-day set ups.
"It's also pretty cool to be sitting on top, so far, as a guy who lives just around the corner in San Dimas, and who is racing in his last event for Checker, Schuck's, Kragen. All of the CSK guys who are here are really supportive, and I know there's lots of people at the company who wish both cars were going forward but it's a business decision and that's out of our hands. They're here pulling for us to go out with a bang, and that's what we're trying to do."
